Young adults currently attending college will likely graduate into a recession, leading to fewer job opportunities and lower earnings. With unemployment in the United States at a record high in 2020, students who lack confidence that the economy will recover quickly are more likely to change career paths.
A new college survey of 1,000 undergraduates at four-year universities finds that two-thirds (68%) of seniors are not confident the U.S. economy will recover before they graduate. By comparison, half (50%) of juniors and one-third (32%) of sophomores say the same.
Just 7% of students have officially changed majors during the pandemic. But an additional (14%) have changed their mind about what career they want to pursue since the onset of COVID-19. And almost 1 in 5 (18%) students graduating in 2020 have changed career paths during the pandemic.
How quickly students think the country’s economy will recover from the 2020 downturn plays a major role in how they view future career prospects. Students who are not at all confident the economy will recover before they graduate are almost three times as likely to say they’ve changed their mind about what career to pursue since the onset of COVID-19 (22%), compared to students who are very confident it will recover in time (8%).
“The downturn in our economy has caused me to think more seriously about what jobs are more important and therefore are less likely to go away,” a University of New Hampshire student says.
Students With No Confidence in the Economy are More Likely to Change Career Paths
Percentage of students who haven’t changed their major but have changed their mind about what career to pursue since the onset of COVID-19.
Among the 7% of students who have officially changed majors during the pandemic, few are switching to programs directly linked to the pandemic, such as Pre-Med. Many students say they finally figured out what they want to do or realized their major wasn’t a good fit. The most common majors students are leaving are engineering sciences and biological sciences, while the most common majors students are joining include psychological and brain sciences and marketing. While no students say they’re switching to Pre-Med, 7% of those switching majors are changing to Nursing. Female students are more likely than male students to switch to Nursing (11% vs. 0%), while male students are more likely to switch to Political Science (18% vs. 0%).
Female students are also more likely than male students to plan on attending medical school (17% vs. 10%), and less likely to to plan on attending a PhD program (19% vs. 39%). Almost one-third (31%) of students plan to attend a graduate program of some sort immediately after graduation.
Female Students are More Likely to Plan on Attending Medical School
What type of graduate program do you plan to attend?
Even for students who are sticking with their original field of study, remote learning is affecting how prepared they feel for their careers. A majority (61%) of students say the transition to remote learning has made them feel less prepared for their careers. But underclassmen are more likely than seniors to say so. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of sophomores say they feel less prepared because of remote learning, compared to 57% of seniors.
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Methodology: This survey was designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted in December among a sample of 1,000 full-time and part-time students attending four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
